Genius (CENTURIES series: Book #2)

23

Mia moved her legs out from under the covers and pulled down the overlarge shirt she was wearing for bed, until it safely covered her butt. She then pulled her feet up under herself and tried her best to sit comfortably without getting affected by the fact that Eli was shirtless again. He had been ready for bed, like her, when something inside him made him change his mind about sharing. She needed to focus right now and listen. Like a friend.

"So who are they?" She carefully asked and watched him closely as he crossed his arms, still leaning up against her door.

He waited two heartbeats. "I was born in London."

Well that was anything but what she asked. She decided to just go with it. "Well that finally explains your tattoos regarding Britain."

He didn't comment on that. Just kept looking at the floor like he had been doing the whole time. "I was born with a high IQ and I was getting noticed by some pretty important people. Around when I was eight, a group who called themselves C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S contacted me. They wanted me to join their elites team and help them discover new things within science. They told me they were researchers." He scoffed. "That they fucking were. I was just eight years old. To a kid that age who loved math and science, it sounded great, so I said yes."

Mia swallowed. "So then what happened?"

"They flew me to America."

"What about your parents?"

"Out of the picture."

So orphaned then. She had had her suspicions, but never fully been certain. "So they took you to America. Then what?"

"They brought me to this... research center," He said, putting a sarcastic emphasis the word research. "That was the first lie they told us."

"Us?"

"There were other genius kids there like me. We were kept locked up, but they explained to us it was a 'necessary confinement to avoid psychological contamination from the outside world'. They made it seem like a fucking sanctum for super smart kids."

"But it wasn't," Mia said, stating it. "So what was the place?"

Eli shook his head silently, staring at a spot on her floor. "It was an experimental facility. They experimented with us."

"Experimented... with you?" Mia said incredulously. "What do you mean by that?"

Eli sighed and finally moved away from the door, only to slowly pace the floor in front of her bed. He folded his hands behind his neck and looked down. "It started out as simple trials. A test of our skills, our knowledge, that kind, but then... then they pulled out the machines."

"Machines?" Mia wasn't certain she wanted to know.

"Hooked us up to them. Begun... harvesting our process."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"They treated us like computers," He very suddenly growled, and Mia now realized the pacing had been to control his anger, just like he had done when she confronted him about talking to Anna. He was pissed right now, old, pent-up anger stirring up again. "They harvested the pattern and process our brainwaves made whenever we aced their tests. Like data. They stored it."